Ben Healy's 7th and Archie Ryan's 21st in the men's road race at the UCI World Road Championships on Sunday were both the best placings by elite Irishmen in a Worlds since the days of Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche.
Kelly was the last Irishman to win a medal at an elite Worlds - bronze in Chambéry in 1989 - and was also 5th the following year in Utsunomiya, when Belgium's Rudy Dhaenens and Dirk De Wolf took gold and silver just eight seconds ahead of the select group Kelly was in sprinting for 3rd.
There followed three more years when Kelly, Martin Earley, Stephen Roche and Laurence Roche rode the Worlds, with Stephen scoring the best finish, of 23rd, in Benidorm in 1992.
And then Ireland entered a bleak period, with no riders in the elite men's Worlds from 1994 to 2001. It wasn't until Zolder in 2002 - when David O'Loughlin was our sole representative and placed 65th - that an Ireland jersey was again present in the pro men's race at a Worlds.
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There then followed appearances by 1998 junior worlds winner Mark Scanlon, O'Loughlin again and David McCann before Nicolas Roche and Philip Deignan made their debut in Salzburg in 2006, McCann was 120th that day, with Roche and Deignan non-finishers.
Roger Aiken also made an appearance in Varese in 2008, when he, Roche and Deignan were non-finishers. And then Dan Martin made his first appearance in the elite team - alongside Roche and Deignan before Matt Brammeier joined the fray for Ireland in 2010, while Ronan McLaughlin also rode in Valkenburg in 2012.
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But even though the top riders of that era - Nicolas Roche, Philip Deignan and Dan Martin - gave us many great days, they didn't come at the Worlds.
The best result for Marin was at the Worlds in Bergan in 2017, where he was 26th, and for Roche in Ponferrada in 2014, where he also placed 26th.
Others who have pulled on that green jersey in the elite men's race at the Worlds include: Sam Bennett, Conor Dunne, Sean McKenna, Ryan Mullen, Eddie Dunbar, Cormac Mcgeough, Dillon Corkery and Rory Townsend.
When one looks back through the results for Ireland in the men's road race at the Worlds, Ben Healy's 7th place today and Archie Ryan's 21st were the best ever results by Irish riders in the men's race since Kelly was 5th in Japan back in 1990.
Eddie Dunbar was making his third appearance for Ireland in an elite Worlds today and took his first finish, placing 67th, though the double Vuelta stage winner is a man for stage race action rather than one-day events.
Conn McDunphy was making his debut today, and though he did not finish, it is a mark of how far he has coming - riding at Continental level for Team Skyline - that he was selected today given the talent Ireland now has to choose from.
